Hopes for 2026
Our Justice Lead, Emma Temple, shares some hopes for the year…
A few people have asked me this week whether my 2026 has “got off to a good start”. I’ve struggled not to roll my eyes.
Instead, I smiled politely and said ‘Yes thanks, not too bad’ – I am British after all.
If I’m honest, the start of this year has been really rough. The mornings are gloomy and the evenings are more so; I fell over on the ice last week, and whenever I read the news it feels like the world is catching fire before our eyes. I’m finding it really difficult right now to “trust in the magic of new beginnings”, like aesthetic Instagram quotes are telling me to.
My new year’s resolutions this year are simple: sing more, swim more, stay at home more. Simple ways I want to be better connected with my community and with my body, to nurture creativity, and to prioritise rest.
But I was challenged recently to think about resolutions in a new way. One of my favourite internet humans Leena Norms made this video about moving beyond personal resolutions, and using the new year to commit to better ways of living for the planet, and for our global community.
Because let’s be real – nature is dying, geopolitics is terrifying, and our communities are being torn apart by people who seek to divide us. This is not the time to be losing sleep over setting a personal best on a 5k.
What if, at the start of 2026, we resolved to have hope? I’ve been reflecting on what hope means throughout the last year, and the message loud and clear has been: hope isn’t a feeling, it’s an action.
Active hope can look like lots of things. It could look like emailing your MP about something that’s made you angry. It could be suggesting your workplace stops buying from Amazon. It could be saying hello to a neighbour you don’t know. It could be donating money or time to a local foodbank or night shelter. (It could be joining in a Leeds Craftivists campaign, or coming to a Social Justice Lunch… not that I’m biased!)
Having hope at a time like this isn’t naïve optimism. It’s concrete steps towards building the world you want to live in. It’s living as if change is possible, even when it feels like the opposite is true. It’s a stance you hold, rather than an emotion you feel or a rational conclusion you draw.
And it may just be the resolution the world needs us to make this New Year.